Lithuanian expertise in nuclear technology brought up to new safety level with Finnish technology

An EU-funded project, aimed at helping Lithuanian authorities to improve the safety of their nuclear power plants, was recently concluded under the leadership of the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). As a result, Lithuanian nuclear power plant expertise, as well as the industry's regulations, were brought up to a higher safety level.

Experts from VTT, the Swedish companies Swedish International Project, Scanscot and Swecon, as well as from the British company Serco Assurance, introduced methods and calculation tools in Lithuania to improve the safety of nuclear power plants. These tools are used for assessing the durability of nuclear power plant constructions in hazardous incidents that may arise from earthquakes, man-made explosions, the transportation of explosives in neighbouring areas and, for example, badly chosen airline traffic routes. The value of the project amounted to one million euro.

With this project, the EU supported the improvement of the safety expertise of Lithuanian authorities and their support organisations. At the beginning of the project, the Lithuanians were also provided with training in the use of calculation tools. Subsequently, a comparison was made between the results obtained by the Lithuanians on the one hand, and other European experts on the other, while using the same set of tools for durability analyses of the power plants in Ignalina. A Lithuanian safety standard for the industry was drafted as the outcome of the project.

In the course of the project, Finnish nuclear power plant expertise, as well as the international network for the industry in general, were strengthened further. The Lithuanian co-operation partners included the Ignalina nuclear power plants themselves, the Lithuanian Nuclear Safety Authority VATESI and the Lithuanian Energy Institute and Geological Institute supporting its work, as well as the technical universities of Vilnius and Kaunas.

Additional information:

Kuva: Erkki Makkonen
VTT Industrial Systems Heli Talja, Group Manger tel. +358 20 722 4524, +358 50 309 2110 heli.talja@vtt.fi	Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority STUK Ilari Aro, Senior Scientist tel. +358 9 7598 8316 ilari.aro@stuk.fi